We have a tradition of taking a baby moon before the birth of each one of our children. We went to Maui and Lanai with Coral, Bali with Reef, but we didn’t have many options for this trip, because the week we had available was in June (expensive) and Zika has dramatically altered the travel map for pregnant travelers. We wanted to go somewhere tropical, but with not too good of surf because Chelsea was too far along in her pregnancy to paddle out and didn’t want to be missing out. Flights to Europe were insanely expensive, We have already been to New Zealand and we are taking a month to go to Australia next year for Mike’s paternity leave. Most of the rest of the world has zika. We had to think long and hard about this one and came up with Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
We love Polynesia. The Cook Islands have surf, but are not known for their surfing like their neighbors, Tahiti and Fiji. We found a good, direct flight from LAX to RAR, and like that we were preparing for our trip to The Cook Islands. We booked our flights about 2 weeks before we left, so most of the accommodations were sold out. There is a huge range in price, from $100-$600/night. We always choose the least expensive place that we consider decent to stay. We opted for the Aroka Bungalows, which cost us $90 USD/night. It was a private bungalow that was right on the beach. It had a spacious lanai, a kitchen and the best view you could imagine.
Like always, Mike got in touch with the local surfers to get the scoop on what kind of stuff the locals recommend for us. Our local expert, Josh, hooked us up. He stopped by the first morning and circles all the surf spots on our map. He let us know which hikes were the best, where to eat, what kinds of things to expect, and he also works at Kite Surf SUP, where he hooked us up with a good deal on a sea scooter exploration tour, where we saw turtles, eagle rays and a reef shark. There were also underwater caves that Mike was able to swim through. If you visit the Cook Islands, we highly recommend you take this tour!
The food on the Cook Islands is incredible! Ika Mata (raw fish marinated in lime and coconut juice) is one of our favorite dishes anywhere in the world. The seafood is fresh, and everything on the island is delicious. The island is also very small, but despite its size, there are very few people on the beaches or on the hikes. You are easily able to get the seclusion that makes trips relaxing, even at the top attractions. The beaches here are among the most beautiful we have seen in out travels, and once again, are not crowded. The weather in our summer (their winter) issimilar to San Diego. The highs were around 80 F and the lows at night were around 65 F. The water temperature was probably about 73 F. The people are friendly and the exchange rate was heavily in our favor.
You can see everything on the island in a week. There are two incredible hikes that offer views from the top of the island. From below, you can see the entire island and the barrier reef. One of this hikes takes you across the entire island and you end up at a waterfall. The hikes are steep and pretty intense, and to get to the very top, you have to rock climb, holding onto chains as you swing around a sheer cliff, but Mike wore sandals and Chelsea was 20 weeks pregnant, so you can do this hike…just don’t look down when you’re swinging from chain to chain, especially if you don’t like heights!
You can only surf at high tide, unless you love walking over sharp reef for a quarter mile or love getting close outs right onto the reef shelf. You have a couple hour window to surf and before you attempt to surf, you’re definitely going to want to get a local to show you EXACTLY where to go in and out, where to line up, which sections to take off on and which to avoid. There are only 2 full time regular surfers on the island, and they are both incredibly friendly and were great guys. There are good waves there, but we wouldn’t advise paddling out unless you know what to look for. There are thousands of urchins and fire coral everywhere on top of really sharp reef. This was the first time Mike had ever surfed in reef booties, and he was stoked he brought them. He stepped on tons of urchins and his feet would have been torn up, but the booties protected him. The entrance and exits are the sketchiest part of the experience.
The country is very kid friendly, and although we didn’t bring out kids, we easily could have brought them. It is a clean and safe country. It is a relatively obscure country to Americans. We didn’t really know anything about it before we came. We were surprised by how much cool history the country has. The Maori people are beautiful and their culture is rich. This is a country that is very underrated and can be enjoyed by all ages and demographics. If you’re looking for a unique tropical getaway, we recommend that you look into the Cook Islands!
